Arsenal: Time for Unai Emery to make tough decisions?

Arsenal still look a little unbalanced with players not playing in their most natural positions. Is it time for Unai Emery to make some tough decisions?

Arsenal are in a 16-game unbeaten run. That statement makes everything seem nice and rosy. But it does not even tell half the story because this is not a team that is playing like it has not lost since August. The results do not reflect the performances.

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Most notably, Unai Emery’s side has looked extremely unbalanced and lopsided, with and without the ball. Early in the season, three of the four most attacking players were all playing out of position. I posited that that could be the reason why. But Emery fixed that. The problem still remains.

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However, that does not mean that Arsenal are now a team comprised of players playing in their best positions. Take Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Wolves, for instance. Emery fielded a team with a wing-back at left back, Sead Kolasinac, a striker at left wing, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and a central attacking midfielder at right wing, Alex Iwobi. That may not seem like a lot, but Wolves did exploit the right wing to great effect, especially on the counter-attack, clearly taking advantage of the disconnect of the Arsenal system.

This, like many others this season, looked like an unbalanced team. And then contrast it to the team that played the best performance of the season last weekend. It was the same as against Wolves apart from one key change: Henrikh Mkhitaryan for Iwobi. Now, Mkhitaryan is not a traditional right winger, but he has far more comfort playing there than Iwobi does. And it showed. Arsenal were in-sync.

Consequently, I find myself asking whether it is time for Emery to make some difficult decisions, for the cohesion of the team’s sake. Is it actually possible to play both Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette in the same team? If Mesut Ozil plays centrally, does that mean Iwobi must play on the left or not at all? Should Kolasinac be starting when a back-four is used?

I understand that for certain matches, alternative options are not always present. Nacho Monreal was injured and so Kolasinac had to play. But as the season progresses and Emery’s ideas continue to embed themselves in this collection of players, I will be extremely interested to see how he manages a squad that consists of very similar styles.

It is not an easy decision to drop Aubameyang from the team altogether just because he does not fit as well as Lacazette — or vice-versa, for that matter. Similarly, Iwobi’s production this season almost demands a place in the starting XI.

But Emery has proven himself capable of making these decisions. He dropped Aaron Ramsey for precisely this reason: he unbalanced the team. He now, however, may have to make more of the same difficult choices.